The present invention relates to agricultural windrowers and, more particularly, to a mounting apparatus for a discharge deflector for a merger mechanism used for conveying crop material to one side of a windrower.
A windrower typically consists of a self-propelled tractor or similar vehicle, and a cutting mechanism which is either towed by the tractor or carried thereby. The cutting mechanism carried by a windrower is typically referred to as a header, and is supported on the windrower by forwardly projecting arms. Current practice in agriculture is to cut a relatively wide swath of the crop within a range of anywhere between 10 and 16 or more feet in width, and then consolidate the crop into a narrower, substantially continuous windrow, in which form the crop is left to dry in the field until the moisture content has been reduced to a value suitable for subsequent harvesting operations, such as chopping or baling.
Improving the current practice is to combine multiple windrows together as they are being mowed. This improvement eliminates a raking operation and also reduces the number of passes of subsequent harvesting operations (e.g., chopping and baling). With the advent of higher capacity forage harvesters and balers, merging windrows is become a more desirable practice. Windrow merging attachments are thus becoming more prevalent on harvesting machines. Mergers generally comprise a conveyor belt for receiving crop from the header and directing the crop laterally for discharge alongside the windrower. Deflectors may be incorporated at the end of the conveyor to direct crop downward from the conveyor end to the ground. Moving the deflector out of the crop path allows the conveyor to propel crop material to a position on the ground further displaced from the end of the conveyor. Deflectors provide additional flexibility in windrow placement for merging operations.
Deflectors, because of their placement, are subject to damage. When lowered, the deflector may extend close to the ground where it may be impacted by obstructions such as rocks. When raised, the deflector may extend significantly beyond the outside of the windrower drive tire where it may also be impacted by obstructions such as fences or other equipment. Such impacts may cause damage to the deflector shield, the deflector mount, or both and result in lost productivity while repairs are made.
It would be a great advantage to provide an improved deflector apparatus for a windrow merger that overcomes the above problems and disadvantages.